Argentine senators rejected a bill to legalize abortion after an impassioned debate bumped into the early hours of Thursday, pushing again towards a groundswell of assist from a surging abortion rights motion.

The Senate voted 38-31 towards the proposed measure, which might have legalized a lady’s proper to search an abortion into the 14th week of being pregnant. The bill had narrowly handed in the decrease home in July.

Households and clergy in baby-blue bandanas gathered exterior the congressional palace because the end result got here in simply earlier than 3 a.m., waving Argentine flags in assist of the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion stance in Pope Francis’s dwelling nation.

Simply because the bill obtained shot down, it should not cease the motion. We will probably be there on the subsequent legislative alternative.– Paula Avila-Guillen, Girls’s Equality Middle

Present Argentine regulation solely permits abortions in circumstances of rape, or if the mom’s well being is in danger.

Abortion rights supporters, clad in inexperienced bandanas which have grow to be an emblem of the motion, danced to drum traces and swarmed the town’s streets to the top, regardless of a biting wind and chilly rain.

Many had camped in entrance of Argentina’s Nationwide Congress since Wednesday night time.

“I am nonetheless optimistic. It did not go immediately, however it should go tomorrow, it should go the following day,” stated abortion rights supporter Natalia Carol, 23. “This is not over.”

Restrictions throughout area

Uruguay and Cuba are the one Latin American international locations that now have broadly legalized abortion.

In Brazil, the Supreme Court docket is set to think about whether or not present regulation — which permits terminating pregnancies solely in circumstances of rape, fetal deformation or when the mom’s life is in hazard — is unconstitutional.

However passing a pro-abortion regulation will face hurdles in Brazil’s more and more conservative Congress, with a rising Evangelical Christian caucus that is staunchly opposed.

Deputies vote on the abortion bill on Thursday in Buenos Aires. The bill would have expanded abortion rights past present legal guidelines that permit it solely in circumstances of rape or well being dangers to a mom. (Amilcar Orfali/Getty Pictures)

Girls’s rights advocates, nevertheless, hope {that a} extra liberal judiciary in Brazil will a minimum of decriminalize abortion to assist keep away from deaths from botched terminations in a rustic the place a whole bunch of hundreds of girls resort to clandestine clinics every year.

Forward of the Senate vote in Argentina, President Mauricio Macri known as the controversy “a win for democracy.” Macri stated he was personally towards abortion, however would signal the bill if it handed.

Argentina’s abortion rights motion, backed by feminist teams galvanized in recent times to cease violence towards ladies, argued that the bill would finish unregulated abortions that authorities knowledge present because the main explanation for maternal deaths.

There are a minimum of 350,000 unlawful abortions in Argentina yearly, the Ministry of Well being estimates, although worldwide human rights teams say the quantity could also be increased.

The transfer to legalize abortion in Argentina is a “public well being and human rights crucial,” stated New York-based Human Rights Watch.

“Simply because the bill obtained shot down, it should not cease the motion,” stated Paula Avila-Guillen, a director of Girls’s Equality Middle, an abortion rights advocacy group. “We will probably be there on the subsequent legislative alternative.”